Background: According to the latest update, 2578 unique mature miRNAs are currently annotated in the human genome and participate in the regulation of multiple events, such as cellular proliferation or apoptosis. A previous study analyzing global miRNA expression patterns in GH cells (high HERV-K versus low) showed that two miRNAs (miR-663 and miR-638) are differentially regulated and exhibit expression parallel to that of HERV-K. The aim of this study was to evaluate HERV-K and -W pol gene and mir-155 expression in SS patients and possible relationship between them.
Methods: The comparison between SS patients and healthy donor showed a significant difference in terms of mir-155 expression P=0.0003 as previously reported by our groups.
Results: We demonstrated that HERV-K and -W pol gene expression was significantly higher in SS patients vs. healthy donor as previously reported by our groups. Our correlation data suggest that miR-155 are not directly involved in regulating the HERVs.
Conclusions: Furthermore, further studies including other cohorts of pathology with mir-155 and HERVs involvement such as inflammatory diseases are needed to investigate the role of mir-155 in the cross-activations of HERVs.